Media blast cost? Heater box and firewall issue

[nsmall]

After researching and researching and talking to multiple people on the cuda-challenger.com site (1.5 years of research), I have decided I am going to strip the Cuda all the way and have it media blasted.

I have a 73 Cuda with a non matching #'s 340 and mechanically, the engine, tranny, and rear-end are all new.

The media blaster with the utmost respect and experience in my city of 300,000 people gave me a quote tonight....Its going to cost me $2,200 to properly blast the entire car besides the interior as the floor boards are rust free.

His price includes PPG epoxy primer on everything blasted.   He primers everything daily he blasts.  He will take lots of pictures and blast and primer the underside.

There is some surface rust in the trunk, lower quarters and I am doing a color change so I am 100% confident I am going to have the car blasted to make sure I dont have issues done the road as I have no plans to sell my car.

I could save $600 by having a different local blaster blast it with garnet..sp???, but the guy I want to use has been blasting for 38 years and everyone whose ever used him (including all of the high end shops) swear he is the best.

Does that price sound about right?  I live in California and he uses a variety of media depending on the panel and I am certain he will NOT warp anything.

I have found two painters so I am going spend around $10k on paint and after all the math I did tonight my total cost to finish this car will be $50,000 

I know I am way over budget, but I did as much research as I could and if I learned anything it is wait and wait and buy someone elses finished car as I dont know much and this hobby is EXPENSIVE!!!!

Will strip the car soon.  My final decision which may be a real foolish one is I have decided to not install the heater as my best option is a vintage air unit (I have a non AC control panel/car with an AC OEM box and AC cut firewall which I have been told are not COMPATIBLE)  BUT I dont want to spend another $1000 so I will cover up my fire wall with some flashing or something removable for later.  DOES ANY ONE HAVE ANY ADVICE ON WHAT I CAN USE TO TEMPORALLY COVER UP THE heater box hole on the firewall?   I was thinking I would rivet or screw in a cover over the hole.

Another question I have is what goes over the firewall in the interior?  I have nothing on the interior fire wall now, but do have the yellow insulation with black covers if that makes sense that I was going to use.  I am assuming the firewall on the interior should  be painted body color?

I have over 90% of the parts I need to finish the car and so my 50k price tag includes the 10% I am missing.

Sorry for the long post.  Trying to finish putting the car together so it can be stripped for paint.

Catch ya all later.

[nsmall]

More pics

[nsmall]

More pics...

I cut the hood scoops open

My car will be painted Toxic Orange

[Cuda Cody]

Before I respond, I have to say WOW!!!!  That car looks super solid!  Haven't seen floor boards that clean in a long time.   

[Cuda Cody]

I complete agree with all the research you've done.  Taking that car down to bare metal is the best thing you can do if you are going to restore it.  I prefer media blasting vs dipping as all the seam sealers and anti flutter glue is removed when dipping a car body.  And your car is so clean you'll not likely be replacing much metal so it would be near impossible to put the sealers back in if you dipped it.  With media blasting you'll not have the possibility of it being a future rattle trap like with dipping.  As for cost, this is where it gets tough.  Because it's not a commodity that can be shopped around like a common part.  It takes experience and a lot of time to media blast a car so it does not warp.  You might find someone cheaper, but it could be at the cost of warping panels.  And the cost of DP primer (which he says he'll use) is not cheap either.  But to give you an idea, I pay around $1,200 for a T/A or AAR with no hood and up to about $1,500 with the hood.  That's inside and out (but he's done a lot of cars for me so I get a good deal).  AND I have to buy the DP epoxy primer and put it on myself.  The primer could add another $500 to the final cost pretty easy.  I would have to look but I think a gallon of DP with hardener is around $400 to $500 now.  It seems like you have found someone that has a lot of experience and does good work.  That's half the battle when blasting a car.  Plus you're in a different area and the prices might be slightly higher for the privilege to have live in a great weather area.  The only thing I would add is I like to run a DA over the blasted area to knock down any media that might have embedded itself in the metal.  Just something I do to be extra sure it's clean before DP Epoxy.

If you already have an AC firewall, why not run a stock factory AC set up?  Your firewall from the engine bay will look much better.  And the controls are not that hard to find.  You have time to find them too as the car will take a bit to get painted.  Remember your engine is the diamond and the engine bay is the beautiful case that holds it. 

The interior was over-sprayed from the factory with body color paint so most of us just paint it body color too.  And yes the firewall has insulation that goes on from the inside.  Attached is a photo of it being installed.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help you with.  One thing I would add, post some photos of your engine bay.  Right now you can have an expert look it over and let you know if you have any extra holes that you might want to fix before paint.  Sometimes having a bunch of extra unused holes looks funny. 

[anlauto]

The above pictures are missing the upper cowl insulation pad

[Cuda Cody]

You are very right!     Good eye!

The above pictures are missing the upper cowl insulation pad

[anlauto]

You are very right!     Good eye!

The above pictures are missing the upper cowl insulation pad

I'll just stop there.....I don't like pointing out incorrect things on someone else's restoration

[Cuda Cody]

It's all good!  I love learning new things and I'll be the first to tell you I'm learning something new each year.  But don't ever feel like you can't pick my cars apart.    I might not change anything I'm doing, but I enjoy hearing what others might have done with it.     Lets pick it apart.. I'll get started:  The brake pedal bracket should be natural, Pedals should only be black up to a dip line, then natural, missing upper cowl insulation (like you noticed), and the heater box is missing the date stamps.

[nsmall]

I'll have an expert look in the engine bay as I don't want too many holes but at the same time I don't know how many I can afford to plug up at this point. I wish the owner before me would have just left a stinking heater box alone.  I'm really torn on what to do, vintage air seems like a good option but Randy from bouchellin said I'm looking at $900 for everything minus the AC components...Sigh

As for the DA on the body after media blasting,  Cuda Cody you got me a little stressed.  I'm assuming media left behind is a BAD idea.  The media Blaster says he blows everything out really good but now I'm wondering if I can somehow have a little control over that before he primes.  When you say DP epoxy is that the same as PPG?  If not, is PPG good primer?

Thanks

[anlauto]

Here's a tip about extra holes....You can always re-drill them after paint.....you can't weld them shut after paint.

If the guy blasting/priming has any experience doing cars, he'll know to prep the body panels properly before priming....

[screamindriver]

I agree with Cody if you're looking for the easiest,best looking solution to your car's HVAC system then reuse what you've got for the inside of the firewall...If originality isn't a factor then you can add an aftermarket AC system from the firewall out...There's really not much to that AC heater box you could restore that yourself to save money...Disassemble,clean,test the vacuum pods, pressure test the heater core and evaporator coil...And a gasket kit from DMT and you're there...

[Cuda Cody]

Plugging holes in the engine bay takes a few minutes.  Super easy before paint.... after paint (like Alan said) =    Post a few photos here of before and after you get the engine out.  You'll get lots of help figuring out what needs to be welded up.   Weld up the wrong hole?  No big deal, easy to drill it out.     But take a look at some of these photos i this tread.  But don't get overwhelmed.  Some people on here know all those holes off the top of their head and we'll help you.

http://forum.e-bodies.org/index.php?topic=303.0

If it was me, I would stick with the factory AC set up.  In your area you'll want AC and the factory AC is proven to work good and looks good under the hood.  And you have lots of factory documents to help you get it installed.  I've heard mixed reviews on the Vintage Air system.  Some great, some bad.  But you can make anything work if you want it bad enough.

As for the DA (Dual Action sander) over the bare metal, I've done it both ways (with and without using it) and it always seems to come out fine especially if you're using a good primer like DP.  If your guy knows what he's doing, it's going to be better then new.  When I say DP or Epoxy, or PPG primer on metal it's all the same.  I'm talking about PPG's DP 2 Part Epoxy Primer.  It's really called DPLF now (the LF is Lead Free), but everyone still calls it DP.  Here's a spec sheet on it.  The spec sheets can be hard to read for new user so don't worry if you don't understand it all.  If your guy has used it before he'll know what to do.

http://www.custom-aerosol.com/pdf/ppg-dplf-epoxy-primer-product-sheet.pdf

Or here's a newer sheet on it that's a little easy for newbies to understand.  Page 45

https://ppgrefinish-na.uberflip.com/i/462316-ppg-custom-restoration-guide/45

The Number you see between the DP and LF is the color of the epoxy.  If your final color will be a light paint, use a light epoxy, if you're doing a dark color use a dark primer.  It's not really a big deal at this stage because your painter will be adding so many primers and sealers over it, but I like using similar colors in case of a big rock chip it doesn't show a contrasting color.

If you get stuck or have a question you are welcome to call me on my cell.  I'll PM you my personal cell number in case you need it.  You came to the right place and there are MANY people on here that know more then me that will also be able to help you. 

I'll have an expert look in the engine bay as I don't want too many holes but at the same time I don't know how many I can afford to plug up at this point. I wish the owner before me would have just left a stinking heater box alone.  I'm really torn on what to do, vintage air seems like a good option but Randy from bouchellin said I'm looking at $900 for everything minus the AC components...Sigh

As for the DA on the body after media blasting,  Cuda Cody you got me a little stressed.  I'm assuming media left behind is a BAD idea.  The media Blaster says he blows everything out really good but now I'm wondering if I can somehow have a little control over that before he primes.  When you say DP epoxy is that the same as PPG?  If not, is PPG good primer?

Thanks

[Shoooter]

I thought of going the vintage AC route but after seeing them they are too ugly for me. Do you have a AC dash pad? The controls for the system are ugly too. I have a extra AC control panel I'll let go once you get to that point. You will be happy in the long run to do it right

[nsmall]

I cant afford setting up an AC on this car.  I dont drive it enough, cant justify spending more money on that, plus a potential new radiator.  HOWEVER, I dont want a big ol hole on firewall.  So just to confirm, if I get an OEM AC control panel I can use it with my OEM AC box?  I have no ducting, no blower motor, heater core is cut up, dont know what an evaporator is, missing everything between the box and control panel, have nothing between the box and front of the engine, vacuum pods...no clue.

I do have an AC dash, its has the ABS core and it is warping so I was planning on buying a dash from UR when they come to the spring fling in Van Nuys.

All this being said and obviously not knowing much, as stupid as it sounds, sealing up the fire wall and wearing a coat in the winter sounds like my best option.

Not sure why I am so intimidated, but its one of my last major issues I wanted resolved before stripping the car and I am running out of steam.

Thanks

Neil